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Philosophy Lost and Found: Irony and Renewal in Kierkegaard’s Philosophical Fragments

  • Daniel Conway EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: August 11, 2021
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Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook
From the journal Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook Volume 26 Issue 1

Abstract

Readers of Kierkegaard’s Philosophical Fragments witness the development of Johannes Climacus from an initial posture of aesthetic detachment to a mutually elevating partnership with his unnamed interlocutor. Despite his (exaggerated) suspicions of philosophy, Johannes cautiously assents in Chapters IV and V of the Fragments to the philosophical innovations suggested by his unnamed critic. As he does so, he not only exposes the limitations of the Socratic account of recollection, which is what he set out to do, but also, and inadvertently, reveals the limitations of his own “thought-project.” As it turns out, the most notable (and persistent) of these limitations is his own fear of (ethical) commitment, which he associates with a union so toxic that one who is ill wed may crave the hangman’s noose. Despite the success he enjoys in developing his “thought-project,” and the camaraderie he experiences with his former adversary, Johannes concludes Fragments by retreating to the safety of the aesthetic nook from which he ever-so-briefly emerged. Fascinated by philosophy but frightened by (what he takes to be) its serious implications, he contents himself with the “fragments” and “crumbs” of which his philosophical diet consists.

Published Online: 2021-08-11
Published in Print: 2021-08-11

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Titelseiten
  2. Title pages
  3. Preface
  4. Contents
  5. Articles
  6. Abbreviations
  7. Section 1: Interpreting Kierkegaard’s Authorship
  8. Section 1:   Interpreting Kierkegaard’s Authorship
  9. In Search of “That Archimedean Point”: The Development of Selfhood in Kierkegaard’s Journal of Gilleleje
  10. Philosophy Lost and Found: Irony and Renewal in Kierkegaard’s Philosophical Fragments
  11. Between Deception and Authority: Kierkegaard’s Use of Scripture in the Discourses, “Thoughts That Wound from Behind—for Upbuilding”
  12. “Your Existence is a Delight to Us.” An Investigation into the Identity of the Neighbour in Kierkegaard’s Works of Love
  13. The Concept of State in Kierkegaard’s Papers
  14. Section 2: Selected Concepts and Problems in Kierkegaard
  15. Section 2:   Selected Concepts and Problems in Kierkegaard
  16. Human Striving and Absolute Reliance upon God: A Kierkegaardian Paradox
  17. The Hidden Divine Experimenter: Kierkegaard on Providence
  18. Towards the Socratic Mission: Imitatio Socratis
  19. Between Singularity and Plurality: Kierkegaard and the Paradox of Absolute Difference
  20. The Liberating Cacophony of Feelings: Kierkegaard on Emotions
  21. The (Im)proper Community: On the Concept of Eiendommelighed in Kierkegaard
  22. Without Authority: Kierkegaard’s Resistance to Patriarchy
  23. Ecophilosophy and the Ambivalence of Nature: Kierkegaard and Knausgård on Lilies, Birds and Being
  24. Section 3: Kierkegaard’s Sources and Historical Context
  25. Section 3:   Kierkegaard’s Sources and Historical Context
  26. Sibbern’s Anticipations of Kierkegaard’s Polemic against the Hegelians: The Critique of Abstraction
  27. Hans L. Martensen on Self-Consciousness, Mysticism, and Freedom
  28. “The Greatest Sculptor”: Bertel Thorvaldsen According to Kierkegaard
  29. Section 4: Receptions and Reflections of Kierkegaard’s Thought
  30. Section 4:   Receptions and Reflections of Kierkegaard’s Thought
  31. The Tale of Two Seducers: Existential Entrapment in the Works of Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky
  32. What is Worldly Logic and Why Might it Lead to Suicide? Kierkegaard, Wittgenstein, and the Critique of Logic
  33. Lukács and Kierkegaard: Decadence or Despair
  34. Is Hell the Other? Kierkegaard and Sartre on the Dialectic of Recognition
  35. On the Limitations of Lao Sze Kwang’s “Trichotomy of the Self” in His Interpretation of Kierkegaard
  36. Section 5: Kierkegaard’s Authorial Strategies
  37. Section 5:   Kierkegaard’s Authorial Strategies
  38. Kierkegaard and the Publisher’s Peritext
https://doi.org/10.1515/kierke-2021-0003

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Titelseiten
  2. Title pages
  3. Preface
  4. Contents
  5. Articles
  6. Abbreviations
  7. Section 1: Interpreting Kierkegaard’s Authorship
  8. Section 1:   Interpreting Kierkegaard’s Authorship
  9. In Search of “That Archimedean Point”: The Development of Selfhood in Kierkegaard’s Journal of Gilleleje
  10. Philosophy Lost and Found: Irony and Renewal in Kierkegaard’s Philosophical Fragments
  11. Between Deception and Authority: Kierkegaard’s Use of Scripture in the Discourses, “Thoughts That Wound from Behind—for Upbuilding”
  12. “Your Existence is a Delight to Us.” An Investigation into the Identity of the Neighbour in Kierkegaard’s Works of Love
  13. The Concept of State in Kierkegaard’s Papers
  14. Section 2: Selected Concepts and Problems in Kierkegaard
  15. Section 2:   Selected Concepts and Problems in Kierkegaard
  16. Human Striving and Absolute Reliance upon God: A Kierkegaardian Paradox
  17. The Hidden Divine Experimenter: Kierkegaard on Providence
  18. Towards the Socratic Mission: Imitatio Socratis
  19. Between Singularity and Plurality: Kierkegaard and the Paradox of Absolute Difference
  20. The Liberating Cacophony of Feelings: Kierkegaard on Emotions
  21. The (Im)proper Community: On the Concept of Eiendommelighed in Kierkegaard
  22. Without Authority: Kierkegaard’s Resistance to Patriarchy
  23. Ecophilosophy and the Ambivalence of Nature: Kierkegaard and Knausgård on Lilies, Birds and Being
  24. Section 3: Kierkegaard’s Sources and Historical Context
  25. Section 3:   Kierkegaard’s Sources and Historical Context
  26. Sibbern’s Anticipations of Kierkegaard’s Polemic against the Hegelians: The Critique of Abstraction
  27. Hans L. Martensen on Self-Consciousness, Mysticism, and Freedom
  28. “The Greatest Sculptor”: Bertel Thorvaldsen According to Kierkegaard
  29. Section 4: Receptions and Reflections of Kierkegaard’s Thought
  30. Section 4:   Receptions and Reflections of Kierkegaard’s Thought
  31. The Tale of Two Seducers: Existential Entrapment in the Works of Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky
  32. What is Worldly Logic and Why Might it Lead to Suicide? Kierkegaard, Wittgenstein, and the Critique of Logic
  33. Lukács and Kierkegaard: Decadence or Despair
  34. Is Hell the Other? Kierkegaard and Sartre on the Dialectic of Recognition
  35. On the Limitations of Lao Sze Kwang’s “Trichotomy of the Self” in His Interpretation of Kierkegaard
  36. Section 5: Kierkegaard’s Authorial Strategies
  37. Section 5:   Kierkegaard’s Authorial Strategies
  38. Kierkegaard and the Publisher’s Peritext
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